It made a bit of a splash at recent gun conventions. Firstly due to its striking and controversial appearance, and secondly because of its unique design features. Namely that its barrel is below the cylinder axis, and it fires from the bottom chamber of the cylinder. This reduces felt recoil and muzzle flip.

The internal lockwork to make this system work is pretty complicated. Thus the trigger is on the heavy side.

I know, such a shocker! Ironic, too, for a guy who caused such a tremendous surge of panic-buying of guns.

This seems to be in line with a previous revelation. Those of us who have ordered ammunition via mail-order know that it comes in a box with an ORM-D (“Other Regulated Materials – Class D”) sticker on it, to identify it as hazardous.

Well, that designation is being phased out in favor of a U.N.-standard designation for hazardous shipments. Is it too much of a stretch to see how that change will allow the United Nations to exert some influence to curtail the free trade of ammunition in America? And exactly how much influence will American citizens have over proposed changes to this new shipping classification?

Given the history of incompetence, corruption and leftist ignorance at the U.N., how comfortable are you with letting 3rd-world dictators and apparatchiks meddle in our domestic affairs?

The AK-47. Popular and ubiquitous, it was made throughout the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War and to this day, in its original form as well as the AK-74 version. Cheap to make and easy to maintain, it was exported heavily to the rest of the world by the Soviets, both as a revenue generator and as a form of military assistance to allies. The end of the Cold War led to the American civilian gun market being flooded with many variants of the AK-47.

Many felt this piston-driven design was a far superior service weapon to the M16, chiefly because of its high reliability, which was all the more attractive because of the problems that plagued the direct-impingement M16 in its early years.

Open-carrier confronted by the Philadelphia police at gunpoint, proned out, cursed at. After they found out they were wrong for stopping him they finally let him go. But the audio recording he made of the incident raised some hackles when he posted it to youtube. He is now being charged with reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct.

Now, the Philadelphia police department is not known for its ethics nor its professionalism. One of its own even documents the stupidity. Another officer, a sergeant in fact, used to air the PPD’s dirty laundry and hosted a messageboard called Domelights where the ugly head of racism kept popping up, bringing the PPD’s reputation down even lower. The threat of a lawsuit forced Domelights to close.

But even if the responding police officers weren’t trigger-happy goons, this is the sort of problem that open carry can cause. The police will arrive at the location of an open carrier in response to a “man with a gun” call, which might have been made by some bedwetting gun-grabber who exaggerated his description of the open-carrier’s behavior. In any case, the police will show up and have to assess the situation.

What happens then is dependent on a lot of factors: What is the responding officer’s experience, and mindset? What kind of day is that officer having? How much does that officer know about open-carry laws? Not to mention: if there is any sort of terroristic threats in the news, law enforcement will be on edge. And, not every open-carrier conducts themselves in friendly non-threatening behavior.

So, this is another example of why I don’t like the practice of open carry. I certainly want it to be legal, but the drawbacks outweigh the advantages.